Well, that was certainly an interesting interview on MSNBC by Katy Tur of Sen. Tim Kaine. Check it out.
Katy Tur: “So, you mentioned the elections on Tuesday and in Virginia, which as you well know, I don’t need to tell you this, highly affected by the government shut down a lot of federal workers. Those Virginians went out and voted overwhelmingly for the Democrat. They voted for Abigail Spanberger for governor and they voted for the Democrats down the ballot as well. You said the president saw this and took notice…I guess the question for a lot of people is why did you read that as a reason to end the shutdown and not a reason to continue and to force the Republicans on the issue of the ACA? Because you can have a separate vote on it. They’ve always said they could have a separate vote on it,
but there’s no leverage any longer. The president can veto it. The House cannot
pass it. So, you’re going to lose those healthcare subsidies more than likely.”
Sen. Tim Kaine “You asked me a funny question, why did I read the results as suggesting we should find a path out of shutdown? It wasn’t the results. It’s that I talk to Virginians every day. My state has been uniquely hurt, uniquely hurt by this shutdown. Uniquely hurt by the mischief in the reconciliation bill. My governor-elect who won by 15 points, Abigail Spanberger, the first thing she said was, ‘please find us a path out of the shutdown.’ She took to her own media last night giving me thanks for finding the path forward. I know what Virginians think. I know some of my colleagues are critical, but I feel very confident that this is a good deal for Virginians and a good deal for Americans. And you’re right, we’re going to have this vote and Democrats will show who we are when it comes to protecting healthcare and Republicans will show who they are.”
Katy Tur: “But you could have done that 40 days ago.”
Sen. Tim Kaine: “But hold on. Hold on a second. But I wouldn’t have gotten full
funding for SNAP and I wouldn’t have gotten protection for federal workers because I needed the president to do that and he only engaged a couple of days ago.”
Katy Tur: “It doesn’t seem like some of the party’s just angry about this. It seems like
this is ripping the party apart at a time where it felt like the party was coming back together post elections. How do you convince your fellow Democrats to to stay together on this? And how do you convince voters across the country to believe in the Democrats again?”
Sen. Tim Kaine: “Can I just say, ‘ripping the party apart?’ I think you’re over dramatizing this. I mean, I know the news business is to try to make everything like the
biggest crisis since…It’s differences of opinion.”
Katy Tur: “Let me let me hold on. Hold on. Hold on…I will quote your fellow Democrats Gavin Newsom calls it pathetic. Hakeem Jefffries complete BS. AOC says this is not about a base of voters, this is about about people’s lives. Chris Murphy says it makes Donald Trump stronger. This is a moment that demands fighters, not folders. I mean, this is me quoting Democrats. This is – I’m not making things up, you know. It’s what people are saying and I’m reporting it.”
Sen. Tim Kaine: “I know it. And you would have said this. You could have read the same quotes last month, a month ago, a month ago, a month ago. Will Rogers 100 years ago – ‘I don’t believe in organized politics, that’s why I’m a Democrat.’ We’re a big tent, we
have different points of view. I’ve been doing this for 31 years. This is by far, by far a minor league issue within the Democratic Party. We’re going to unify around having the health care fight within a month, and people are going to see where Democrats are and see where Republicans are. And I’ll be glad to come back and talk to you about it once we’ve done that.”
Finally, asked about Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Kaine said: “I never express opinions about, you know, what the Democrats should do on the House side because I just got a full-time and more job just being the senator. So, I don’t freelance a lot of advice over there. But, if people on the House side have opinions about Chuck, they’re entitled to him. But within the caucus, I can tell you right now, Chuck’s our leader and he’s going to be our leader.”
